A retired judge and two nonprofit leaders reflected on online schooling throughout the coronavirus pandemic and asked the question: Is COVID-19 the disruptor that education needed?
The panel discussion Saturday morning was part of the University of Colorado Boulder’s 73rd Conference on World Affairs.
The inequities that have existed in education weren’t invented by the pandemic, but the situation did put some disparities into the spotlight, panelists said. As people look toward a future when students can fully return to the classroom, those who shared their thoughts Saturday said they don’t want to see a return to normal, but rather a reinvention of an education system that will include more diverse forms of learning and an incorporation of more voices.
An intentional redesign of the education system is needed, said Jonathan Santos Silva, chairman of The Bored of Ed podcast and also the founder of the Liber Institute, a South Dakota-based organization to equip indigenous students, families and educators to transform schools.
“Our system from its inception has produced inequitable outcomes for women, for Black students and for indigenous students and other communities of color,” he said.
Bill Thorne, who served as a judge for 30 different native tribes across a dozen states, said COVID-19 forced the education system to innovate.
“Anytime you asked for change, it was a predictable, ‘No, we can’t do it that way. We don’t have the money or personnel to do it,” he said. “COVID forced us to innovate, and I hope that’s a lesson that we don’t lose. That systems can innovate if they’re motivated.”
For example, he said there’s no reason education can’t be designed to reach out to more families, especially remote and working families who may not be able to make student teacher meetings or might feel uncomfortable coming into the school setting.
Moderator Michael Anthony, a Seagate technology business data analyst, asked panelists to share their thoughts on the digitization of learning.
Thorne said the pandemic brought to light the “digital divide.” For some children living on reservations, slow-moving dial-up is their only internet access, he said.
Santos Silva echoed this.
“We have to get real about broadband being a human right,” he said. “When schools went virtual not all schools and homes had internet. We’ve got to give tribes, we’ve got to give communities, cities the tools to innovate.”
He shared an example of some private schools offering tents for their students to learn outdoors on spacious campuses, while other students had to huddle in a parking lot outside a restaurant just to get WiFi.
Anashay Wright, founder and chief executive disruptor for the nonprofit Disruptive Partners, which advocates for interrupting systems of power, said she believes one way the pandemic changed education was by bringing more voices to the table. Wright, who has a son in high school, said she saw parent-teacher involvement increase.
“It showed us that it’s not an either-or world, that there’s a choice in giving people options to be involved and be engaged,” Wright said. “For me, it really elevated the expertise that the people most proximate to the problem had. It showed that gone are the days of punitive discipline referrals because you need that momma on the other end of the Zoom.”
Recognizing the work teachers put into the classroom is also something Thorne hopes has been realized throughout the pandemic.
“Too many thought that teachers were just glorified babysitters,” he said. “Now that they’ve had to teach their own, they understand that it’s not quite that simple. If we have teachers truly engaging their students, making learning come alive, we ought to reward them.”
Reflecting on the past year, Wright said she hopes learning conditions brought on by the pandemic inspire positive change.
“What we need to make sure we do is make sure that we don’t go back to the way things were,” Wright said. “We know that that was not serving every child in a powerful way. I’m really excited to get people energized, organized, mobilized, so that we can strategically disrupt in a way that creates powerful experiences.”
The Conference of World Affairs wraps up Sunday. People can watch the livestream of the events through the CWA at CU Boulder YouTube. For more information, people can visit colorado.edu/cwa.
